15 classic Indian restaurant dishes you can make at home

If you are trying to find a real experience, allow yourself the joy of eating Indian food. A lot of people hesitate to try exotic yummy and colorful food since they feel it is spicy. Bear in mind that all Indian food is not spicy. Most restaurants will prepare the food to your liking, controlling the heat. Here are 15 classic Indian restaurant dishes you can make at home.

Indian Restaurant

It was in search of these rich spices, flavor, and fragrances which made our ancestors leave also the comfort of home. Indian foods vary by area and some Indian foods are known to have healing qualities.

The essence of Indian food lies in its spices. A dash of ghee adds a distinctive taste and amchur adds and assists with digestion. Indians like to use coriander as a garnish which has its own lovely fragrance. 

Secondly, most Indians are vegetarians. Veggies are utilized a lot of times and are the essential ingredient in the meal. If you wish to taste veggies in ways you’ve never tasted before visiting an Indian Restaurant is your best option.

Third, Fruits are regarded as energy giving & are very popular in the Indian diet. Many fruits are dried and used extensively in the Indian cuisine. Seeds are viewed as a staple when planning Indian food. These seeds add a very distinct taste to numerous dishes.

Finally, Saunf is added to desserts and some vegetarian dishes to act as a flavoring agent. Kalonji is utilized in foods believed to be heavier in seasoning and also utilized in pickling while Khus added to the flavor of the meat. Saffron which is one of India’s most expensive and cherished spice is for its color and fragrance.

15 classic Indian restaurant dishes to make at home 

• Samosa

As a famous Indian moderate spicy pastry, samosa is a wheat or a maida flour based stuffed with potatoes, onions, green peas, spices, green chili and sometimes a meat-based stuffing. The entire pastry is then deep-fried until golden brown.

Initially made as a meat-filled savory to go along with pulao. The samosa transformed from batata/potato from the Portuguese to a modern delightful snack filled with cooked veggies.

• Pakora/bhaji

It’s just not onion rings or onion fritters that Indians eat. We make deeply fried bhajis with brinjal, raw banana, gourds, turnips, bell peppers and of course chilli. This Indian snack is a match made in heaven, comforting with a cup of masala chai.

• Palak paneer

A healthy subcontinental dish/curry with fresh cottage cheese or paneer. This dish goes well with sides like naan, roti, and rice too. It is such a healthy food, which indicates Indians cannot live without spinach. Be it from the south or north palak paneer is a dish close to our hearts.

•  Channa dal

Channa dal is a staple food of India. It is also known as Bengal gram or split pigeon peas. The grain has a sweet and an earthy nutty feeling to it. Channa dal is a very versatile dish, it is cooked with different combinations of lentils and vegetables. Different tadka is added to dal to enhance the flavour of each recipe.

Channa dal has a lovely aroma and it absorbs the flavors of the spices really well. This dal does not boil down to mush, it is often cooked with urad dal. Chana dal is also used for tempering and cooking meat dishes like Shammi kebabs. Channa dal is delicious and has a very low glycemic index.

• Aloo Gobi 

An all-time favorite combination, in an all-time favorite form. Potato and cauliflower feature in a traditional curry seasoned with typical Indian spices and spruced up with common ingredients like ginger, green chilis and garlic.

The magic of the garam masala and dry mango powder is evident in Aloo gobi, as these spice powders really perk up the flavor of the sabzi.

• Tandoori Chicken

The chicken is marinated in yogurt and seasoned with the spice mixture tandoori masala. Cayenne pepper, red chilli powder or Kashmiri red chilli powder is used to give it a fiery red hue. A higher amount of turmeric produces an orange color.

It can be intricately spiced, the chicken tastes even better, juicy, and tender when its allowed to rest in the yogurt-based marinade overnight.

• Chicken tikka masala

If there’s one curry that you can guarantee will be popular with everyone it’s got to be the Chicken Tikka Masala, it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t like this rich, creamy, flavoursome dish. Chicken Tikka Masala has all the flavour, spice and vivid color of a traditional Indian dish.

• Butter Chicken

One of the most popular Indian restaurant dishes, though it is very similar to chicken tikka masala. the chicken pieces are e bone-in. The ‘butter’ in the gravy used to be actually butter. Not the salted off-the-shelf variety, but fresh white butter made out of the thick cream that rises to the top of buffalo milk after boiling and cooling. This butter added to the onion-tomato based gravy late in the process, makes the gravy smooth and creamy and less tart. Remember, till the hullaballoo about cholesterol started, butter was and still is, in some parts of the world a very healthy food.

• Chicken Jalfrezi

Jalfrezi is a dish originating in the Indian subcontinent, popular in Bangladeshi cuisine and Indian cuisine that involves frying marinated pieces of meat, fish or vegetables in oil and spices to produce a dry, thick sauce. This delightfully flavorful curry with tender juicy chunks of chicken in a spicy tomato sauce studded with stir-fried peppers and onions, Chicken Jalfrezi comes together in under 30 minutes.

• Biryani 

Biryani is prepared with meat marinated with spices and yogurt overnight and then cooked. The meat is placed between layers of fragrant long-grained basmati rice and cooked after sealing the vessel with dough and then placed with a dum. This is a challenging process as it requires meticulous attention to time and temperature to avoid over or under cooking the meat.

• Roti, chapathi, and paratha

‘Phulka’ is a roti partly cooked on tawa and then roasted on the direct fire, or cooked on the tawa and pressed with a ball of cloth, till it swells up.

Roti/chapati is usually not made to swell up, especially if it is rolled comparatively thick. Bubbles do appear in the roti/chapati when steam forms in some places.

The word ‘Roti’ is used commonly in the north, central and east India, whereas ‘Chapati’ is used more in the west (Mumbai), and south India. Only in south India Chapati is fried in a bit of oil! Elsewhere, only a Paratha is fried with oil or ghee

Chapati is also made of plain white flour (maida or all-purpose flour) in some places in south India. Unlike Rotis, chapati made of maida becomes leathery when it cools down – tough and difficult to tear. 

Paratha is made from an unleavened dough of whole wheat flour and shallow fried with a little oil/ghee/butter. Parathas generally stay soft and moist even during the cold.

• Raita

Raita — yogurt mixed with boondi or vegetables or fruits — is an integral part of the Indian meal. Health conscious people include yogurt in every meal to feel full and avoid intake of excessive carbohydrates. Incorporating yogurt in your meals in the form of raita is an excellent idea, though you might want to check the calories that you intake with every bowl.

• Lamb Rogan josh

Rogan josh, (Rogan Josh is a combination of two Farsi words. Rogan means oil while the word Josh means intense passion, it is more into figurative use meaning the mutton or lamb cooked under intense heat.) is really a unique recipe hailing from the frost-fed land of Beautiful Kashmir.

It is a Persian delicacy which the Mughals imported into Kashmir. basically in all the fine arts of the Mughals, be it Architecture, or jewelry designs or cooking, we see a recurrent thread of Persian nostalgia!!!

Interestingly Kashmiri pandits eat meat but without the use of onion or garlic which they consider as non-veg!!! In Delhi, we consume rogan josh, which is actually Rogan Josh by name. by flavor and taste, it is simply mutton curry. Rogan Josh has some particularities. maintaining those features can usher in the emergence of the bygone royal era.

• Chicken vindaloo

Vindaloos are characterized by a thinner, typically tangier sauce made with a splash of vinegar. These dishes also typically tend to be on the spicier side with a blend of hot chilies in the mix, so proceed with caution.

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